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The history of NAIDOC Week

05 July 2023
Culture and Capability
A National Aborigines Day event in Sydney in 1963. Photo courtesy of the State Library of NSW.

NAIDOC Week is marked across Australia every year, beginning on the first Sunday in July and finishing on the second Sunday. A celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, history and peoples, it’s grown to become one of the most important weeks on the Australian calendar - but when did it start and why?

The first seeds of what would become NAIDOC Week were planted by Indigenous activists, including William Cooper, Douglas Nicholls and Jack Pattern, who held a day of protest on January 26 1938, called the Day of Mourning, or the 150th anniversary of the arrival of the First Fleet.

The protest, which included a march through Sydney, received significant media and public attention - prompting Prime Minister Joseph Lyons to meet with the leaders involved. The delegation gave Lyons a manifesto calling for citizenship rights for Aboriginal people.

The following year, William Cooper wrote to the National Missionary Council of Australia in order to push for an annual event.

Between 1940 and 1955, the Sunday before Australia Day was known as National Aborigines Day. From 1955, the day shifted to July, in order to expand from a day of protest to include celebrations of Indigenous achievements and culture as well.

In 1975, the National Aborigines Day Observance Committee (NADOC) decided that the event should span a full week. From the 1990s, the title of the committee became the National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC). The Committee continues to direct and drive NAIDOC Week.

Each year, a theme is chosen as a focus for that year’s NAIDOC Week. Themes over the years have included “White Australia Has a Black History” (1987), “Bringing Them Home” (1998), “Voice, Treaty, Truth” (2019) and many others.

As more councils, community organisations and cultural institutions get involved every year, NAIDOC Week continues to grow and evolve – ensuring the ongoing recognition of Indigenous history and achievement and a continuing platform for learning and protest.

Note: The word Aborigine is an outdated term, but is included here for historical accuracy.